Are Tottenham Digging Themselves An Even Deeper Hole?

Tottenham are on the brink of relegation. Tottenham also want to make Roberto De Zerbi one of the highest paid managers in the Premier League. Are they adding an elite manager that can drag them out of this hole for years to come? Or are they making one of the worst and most naive decisions in their history?

De Zerbi is one of the most adored managers by football fans and analysts due to his expansive and entertaining philosophies. In an interview in 2025 he spoke on why he always wants his teams to play out from the back saying that, ‘kicking the ball long and trying to win the second ball is a gamble. And since I don’t like to gamble, I would rather train my team to play out from the back when possible.’ It is this kind of thinking, and the beautiful football that his teams often play that has captured many football fans’ hearts.

But with De Zerbi’s style of play comes some risk, and in Tottenham’s current situation, those risks might even be heightened. To carry out his gameplan, De Zerbi needs certain players that have certain profiles and skillsets. If he was to join Tottenham for the remainder of the season, he would only have 7 games to implement his ideas and save their season. He very well could try and dumb his philosophies down since he only has limited time with the group this season, but as Tim Sherwood said on Sky Sports News, ‘we know how stubborn this man is’. And with that stubborness comes a full commitment to the ideas that he holds dearest. Implementing those ideas in the little time he has left is going to be very difficult. Making a mistake when you play out from the back can lose you a game in an instant, and with every game being of utmost importance to Tottenham at this stage, they may be better off with a more sturdy ideology at the helm.

But if these risks are clear even to regular fans and pundits, why are Tottenham so eager to bring the Italian in? It has been reported by The London Evening Standard that ‘they have offered him a significant financial package which would make him one of the highest paid managers in the Premier League.’ And at this stage ‘it is unclear if any deal would include a relegation release clause.’ So, at this stage, it looks as though Tottenham have full confidence that in appointing De Zerbi they would be guaranteeing their survival in the Premier League.

If that is the case, it is fair to say that they are being incredibly naive. No one would argue that De Zerbi isn’t a fantastic coach, but Tottenham don’t need a fantastic coach right now. They need to stay in the Premier League. Sherwood also added that ‘De Zerbi is far from a safe pair of hands’ and he is right. The Italian left Marseille in February, failing to see out 2 seasons at the French club. He also only managed one season at Shaktar Donetsk before spending two years at Brighton. All of that instability on top of the high risk, high reward style of play that he would likely want to bring in should make him a very undesirable target for Tottenham right now.

The fact that they see this profile of manager as the answer to their problems says that they either don’t take the threat of relegation that seriously, or they truly haven’t thought this through very much. If they were to be relegated, the financial implications would be extraordinary. And yet, they want to make De Zerbi ‘one of the highest paid managers in the league’. If relegated to the Championship, they would likely have to offload the majority of the senior squad, at a discount too. Adding a severance fee for De Zerbi would be ill-advised, and that is putting it lightly. The Italian had initially wanted to wait until the summer to enter talks, likely so he knew what league Spurs would be in, so he clearly has reservations about managing a Championship side. Why bring in a manager with a risky style of play, a risky contract, and a risky track record, into a situation where you need as much stability and safety as you can get? It just doesn’t read like a group of decision makers that are tackling this situation with the right mindset.

Obviously, it is not a guarantee that Tottenham will be relegated with or without De Zerbi, in fact, it would still be one of the biggest shocks in English footballing history when you consider the squad of players that they have. But to treat this situation with the level of entitlement that it appears that they currently have, is beyond naive. Sure, they may stay up by bringing in De Zerbi, but if they were to go down after bringing him in, it would have catastrophic financial implications that would surely make it one of the worst decisions that they have ever made.